


Like a ray of sun burning through my darkest night

by ReySkyrissian (ErinacchiLove)



Series: The Return of Hope & Appendices [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy Ending, Child Loss, Everything A Goddamn Ordeal In Area Family, Family Feels, Family Reunions, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Lando centric, M/M, OT Retelling, Post-Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Rey Calrissian-Skywalker, Romance, idiots to lovers, in this house we love and cherish Lando Calrissian
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-01
Updated: 2019-02-01
Packaged: 2019-10-20 12:51:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17622707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ErinacchiLove/pseuds/ReySkyrissian
Summary: As the Millennium Falcon makes her way to Cloud City, Lando Calrissian reminisces his relationship with Luke Skywalker: how they met, fell in love, got married, and had a daughter - and how all of that was taken away from them.Prequel to The Return of Hope.(reupload)





	Like a ray of sun burning through my darkest night

**Author's Note:**

> lol guess which idiot deleted the original instead of editing it *points at self*
> 
> I'll be reuploading old chapters whenever I'm finished with some edits^^ (gonna be a bit slow but I'll do my best)
> 
> Anyway, here's what I remember of the old A/N:
> 
> Ties in with the first chapter of The Return of Hope, you can read them in whichever order.
> 
> Also because I am me and I live for references, there are plenty of them. I'll make notes of them in each individual chapters. The first one references to Solo: A Star Wars Story, and The Clone Wars.
> 
> Title is from Halo by Beyoncé, which is one of the songs I think describe Lando and Luke's relationship perfectly. Chapter titles follow the suit (chapter one is also from Halo).
> 
> Hope you'll enjoy!

It was going to be another monotonous day. First there would be reports to go over, then a couple of union meetings, lunch, some more meetings, maybe a few trade deals to sign, and then the day would be over again. Uneventful, just like the days had been for several years now.

     Lando Calrissian, Baron Administrator of Cloud City, was used to it by now. The war raging in other parts of the Galaxy had mostly ignored Bespin and, to that effect, Cloud City, so he had been able to continue is daily life unaffected for the most part. Sure, he still smuggled the tibanna gas to the Resistance, free of charge, but aside from that it was almost as if the war didn’t even exist here. Every now and then they would get a group of refugees or two, but that was about it.

     By the time Lando was free to eat his lunch, the only big issue in his day had been the mining union’s insistence on bigger surplus for dangerous work, and even that had been easy to solve. Lando had had the budget checked and as he had thought, they were able to afford the pay for the mining union.

     The interruption to his daily routine came just as he was preparing to have his dinner.

     “Sir,” his head of flight control, a Togruta named Shori, rushed into his office, “we have an unauthorized ship approaching the city!”

     Lando jumped up and followed Shori to the flight control room. Unauthorized ships tended to predict problems but if he was quite honest, Lando had been hoping something would happen. Besides, as long as the approaching ship wasn’t from the First Order, he could deal with anything, from refugees to unsavory smugglers.

     “Alright then, let’s see what we have here,” Lando said and opened the comlink. “Approaching ship, announce your name and cargo.”

     The comlink rattled and for Lando’s surprise the voice speaking was a very familiar one. “ _Lando? This is Leia and the_ Falcon _. Let us land, we have a badly injured man on board!_ ”

     Lando let out a relieved sigh. He hadn’t heard from Leia for ages, and the latest news of the Resistance that he had received was a brief announcement of Han’s murder, something Lando still hadn’t digested. And now that the _Falcon_ was arriving, the idea that Han wouldn’t be the one piloting her was absurd. Actually, Lando wondered briefly, who _was_ piloting the _Falcon_ right now? Chewie, maybe? But what about a co-pilot?

     “Leia? Goodness, it’s been ages,” Lando replied. Shori passed him a note of the free landing boards. “Landing board HKT-48 is free. The medical wing is ready for your injured man. I’ll see you soon!”

     “ _Thank you, Lando._ ” Leia sounded tired, and Lando fully understood why. Being a Resistance general was a tiresome job, he had first-hand knowledge of that, and in his time he’d only led a small squadron, not the entire Rebel Alliance. “ _I have news for you, about Luke._ ”

     Lando’s gut twisted. Luke. He hadn’t heard anything but rumors about his husband for… kriff, was it seven years already? After the destruction of the New Jedi Temple Luke had gone missing, and for all Lando had known he might’ve been dead. Even after Leia had informed him about Lor San Tekka maybe possessing a clue about Luke’s whereabouts he hadn’t dared to hope that his husband was still alive. Obviously he was, then, and it should’ve been a relief, but…

     Lando sighed. “Let’s talk about that face to face.”

     “ _I thought so too_ ,” Leia answered. “ _We’ll see each other in a moment._ ”

     And then the comlink was silent. Lando sighed into his hand and closed his eyes. It was a long time since he’d last properly thought of Luke, and yet the pain felt as fresh as the day he had lost his husband. As no one reacted, Lando willed himself to stay calm, and said to everyone in the room, “That was General Leia Organa, an old friend of mine. I need a stretcher and first aid personnel on landing board HKT-48, and some extra meals prepared.”

     “Roger that,” said Shori.

     “We’re on it, sir,” added several other air control officers.

     Lando waited until his employees had left before he let himself break down. Better do this now than have it happen in front of Leia and her crew. He felt like someone had torn all the old wounds open. It had been seven years, he should’ve been over this by now. Only… Lando did not want to be over Luke.

     Well, it was time to face everything. Lando got up and went to his personal quarters to change his cape. Nausea wasn’t an excuse for a sloppy appearance. While he fastened the clasp his eyes wandered into his shelf of holo-photos, especially to one where Rey had lost all of her front teeth and had such a wide grin that no one could miss it. Luke was laughing behind her.

     Lando shook his head and headed out. Those were only memories now. That life was lost now. His husband and daughter were gone. He had to get back to reality and not dwell in the memories, no matter how dear they were.

 

* * *

 

“We’ve got to go back,” Leia insisted as Lando and Chewie prepared to make their escape. Lando frowned at the princess.

     “What?”

     “I know where Luke is!” There was iron conviction in Leia’s voice, which Lando had to admire. But the whole idea seemed completely mad. What was so important about one man that they had to return to the very peril they had just barely escaped from? Why was Luke Skywalker such a big deal to everyone, regardless what side they were on?

     “But what about those fighters?” Lando asked, but Leia ignored him.

     “Chewie, just do it,” she said to the Wookiee who actually had agreed with Lando on those as well. That was a first that day.

     “But what about Vader?” This time Chewie let out a frustrated growl that was impossible to translate. “Alright, alright, alright!”

     The _Falcon_ turned around, back to Cloud City. Leia directed them to the very bottom of the city, even below the emergency hangar bays, down to the place where no one ever went except to get readings of the planet’s pulse.

     Lando frowned. “Look, someone’s up there.” The human figure dangling on a weather scanner vane looked like they were just about to fall. They had made it there right on time.

     “It’s Luke,” Leia said, and Lando wanted to ask her how she knew, but there was no time. Leia turned to Chewie. “Chewie, slow down. Slow down and we’ll get under him. Lando, open the top hatch.”

     At this point Lando knew better than to try to argue. Besides, he had to admit that he was curious. It was about the worst place anyone could end up in Cloud City, so _how_ had Luke Skywalker even ended up there?

     Lando clipped himself into the hatch (better safe than sorry, the winds were powerful down there). And then he was outside and everything that happened after that happened so quickly that he didn’t have time to register any of it until he realized that he was holding the nearly unconscious Luke Skywalker in his arms.

     Lando had a brief second to think, _Oh no, he’s cute_ , before he helped Luke on his feet and inside the _Falcon_. Kriff, this was no time to think things like that, the man was badly injured. Lando only now registered that Luke was missing his right hand. Whatever had happened, it couldn’t have been pretty. Lando grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around Luke’s shoulders.

     “It’s okay,” Lando said softly, unsure if Luke heard him or not. “I got you. You’re safe now.”

     Leia was already waiting on the corridor and as she hugged Luke, Lando let go of him, let Leia take him to the _Falcon’s_ small medbay and went to the cockpit. Oh, that hyperdrive better had been fixed, there had already been such colossal screw-ups today, and Lando really didn’t want to deal with another.

     After the most daring escape Lando had been a part of since the Kessel run and after the blue-and-white astromech droid, R2-D2, had fixed the hyperdrive that apparently had been turned off, they finally reached the Rebel Alliance’s rendezvous point. Well, at least one thing went somewhat right that day. Leia and Chewie had taken Luke to _Home One’s_ medbay, but apparently bacta couldn’t properly heal injuries caused by a lightsaber. Something about those wounds being instantly cauterized or something like that, if Lando understood correctly.

     For the most part Lando stayed in the _Falcon_ , trying to figure out how to proceed from here. He had got an encrypted message from Lobot that Cloud City had managed to evacuate successfully and that many of the citizens were going to join the Rebel Alliance in hopes of reclaiming their city, both of which were good things. But one question remained. Where was Han? Where had that bounty-hunter taken him?

     “Well, L3,” Lando mumbled to the _Falcon’s_ navigation system, “I could really use a sarcastic comment from you now.”

     The cockpit remained silent, and Lando wasn’t sure if he even expected anything else. But he really missed L3-37. Sure, she had been annoying at times, but she had also always had great insight and was an overall delight to be around. And now she was a part of the _Falcon’s_ navigation system. It wasn’t what L3 deserved by any means, but at least that way she wasn’t completely gone. Thanks to her they had been able to make the Kessel run in twelve parsecs and survive.

     Lando sat in the co-pilot’s chair, leaned back and closed his eyes. Maybe a nap would clear his head a bit. He’d have to talk to Chewie and Leia soon, see if they had anything close to a plan, if they even agreed to talk to him. Lando wasn’t going to judge them if they didn’t.

     And that was why Chewie popping in and telling Lando that Luke Skywalker wanted to speak with him came as such a surprise. Lando really couldn’t imagine why, but for the sake of peace he just followed Chewie to the medbay where Leia was pacing while a 2-1B medical droid was fitting a prosthetic hand into Luke’s severed one. Leia narrowed her eyes upon seeing Lando, but didn’t say anything. She just sat on a chair and crossed her arms, as if to say “I’ve got my eyes on you in case you try to pull anything”. Lando tried to ignore her eyes drilling into his back and offered Luke a small smile. Luke returned it, even with the pain he must have been in, and Lando cursed internally. That smile made Luke even cuter than what the first impression had been.

     “Well, you seem to be doing better,” Lando said.

     Luke shrugged. “Whatever it is that better means. They weren’t able to regrow my hand but I’m alive so… Yeah. I suppose I am doing better. Thanks for catching me. It was you, right?”

     “Um, yeah.” Lando cleared his throat. “Yeah, that was me. I’m Lando. Lando Calrissian.”

     “Luke Skywalker.” Luke glanced at the prosthetic hand and then back at Lando. “It’s nice to meet you, though I wish it could’ve been under more pleasant circumstances. Leia told me what happened.”

     “Right.” Something told Lando that there was a big chance Leia hadn’t given Luke a very flattering recap of the situation they were in. Well, why would she have? In her book he was the scumbag who had sold her, Han, and Chewie out for the Empire. But it wasn’t as if Lando had had a choice, you didn’t just go and say no to Darth Vader…

     “And I’d like to hear your side of the story,” Luke added. “We gotta help Han, but we have to do it together. I’d like to have all the facts.” He gave Leia a pointed look, they must have had an argument about this earlier. Leia made a face but remained silent, though the look she gave Lando was clearly challenging him to give a damn good explanation.

     This was nothing Lando had expected, but just the fact that Luke was willing to give him a chance was more than what he deserved under the circumstances. So, he got to the story, how Vader and his minions had arrived in Cloud City and informed him that the _Falcon_ was going to arrive shortly and that they needed him to detain the crew.

      “I told them I didn’t want anything to do with the Empire,” Lando said, “that Cloud City was independent and had nothing to do with their battles, and that was when Vader raised his hand and did… something. I’m not sure what it was, but one moment everything was fine and the next one I was choking on nothing.”

     Luke bit his lip. “Force choking. I… I’ve heard of it. It’s a Sith trick. Jedi wouldn’t do it.”

     Well, that explained it. Lando rubbed the back of his neck and continued. “At any case, the original deal was just to detain Han, Leia, and Chewie until you got there. No one was supposed to get hurt. All the shit that happened after, Han being frozen in carbonite and all that, that was Vader changing the deal. And I was stupid enough to believe he’d honor the deal.”

     “No, you’re not stupid.”

     Leia stood up with an odd look in her eyes. Was that sympathy? She crossed her arms and continued, “I know a thing or two about being tortured by Vader. There was nothing you could’ve done, and it sounds like you were put in between the rock and the hard place.”

     Lando made a face. “I tried to pick the least bad choice out of what was only bad choices, but it turned out they all sucked equally.”

     “Well, at least now everyone is still alive,” Leia said. “Even Han.”

     She offered Lando her hand, and he shook it with a small smile. They weren’t friends yet, far from it, but now… now they understood each other a little bit better. It was a start.

     “I’ll do everything I can to save Han,” Lando promised.

     “We all will,” said Leia. “Luke’s right, we need to do it together. So, does anyone have any idea where that bounty hunter might’ve taken him?”

     Luke rubbed his chin with his good hand. “I know Han had a huge debt to Jabba the Hutt, and Jabba lives on Tatooine. I think I could bet my X-wing that that’s where Han is too.”

     “Alright then,” Lando said. “I suppose that means we’re going to Tatooine.”

 

* * *

 

Tatooine was easily the lousiest planet Lando had ever been to, and he had travelled a lot. The combination of heat, endless sand, and absolutely no clue of Han’s whereabouts was disheartening. Well, at least Chewie was there. They had agreed to bunk on the _Falcon_ in a small unassuming hangar bay in Mos Espa until Luke arrived, after which they’d make new arrangements.

     After yet another fruitless day Lando lay in his bunk, hoping Luke would arrive soon. He had promised it wouldn’t take long to get the clearance to fly an X-wing again, but apparently there had been setbacks because to this day there had been no sign of the young Jedi. The only things Lando and Chewie had managed to find out during their four months on Tatooine was that Jabba the Hutt most definitely resided there and that his palace wasn’t hard to find, but how to actually get in there and if Han was there too… well, those were the problems. No one was willing to share that information, even with bribery, either because they worked for Jabba, because they were scared of him, or both.

     Lando was about to doze off when Chewie stuck his head in the room and said, “ _Luke’s here._ ”

     Lando got up from his bunk and followed Chewie to the hangar bay. Finally. Even though he and Chewie had patched things up, being stuck alone with him for months did get a bit taxing, especially because Chewie’s fur clogged the _Falcon’s_ ‘fresher, which was already rusty enough. Honestly, Han ought to have taken better care of the _Falcon_ , this was a kriffing disgrace. Luke’s company was a more than welcome change. Leia would get on Tatooine sometime later, after having made all the necessary arrangements with the Alliance.

     “Found everything you need?” Lando asked as he and Luke shook hands.

     Luke nodded. “And some more. When I landed on Devaron, trying to find kyber crystals, I ran into another Jedi. Her name is Ahsoka Tano.”

     Lando frowned. Ahsoka Tano? Where had he heard that name before? And then, all of the sudden, it came back to him. He’d only been a child when the Clone Wars had reached his birth planet of Socorro, and during one of the assaults he and his mother had been saved by a young Togruta Jedi with two lightsabers who had smiled at them, told them that they were safe, and that her name was Ahsoka Tano. And then one of the clones had called for her and she’d have to leave.

     “You mean Commander Tano?” Lando asked.

     Luke raised an eyebrow at him in surprise. “You know her?”

     Lando scratched the back of his neck. “Well, not personally, but I have met her briefly. She saved my and my mum’s lives during the Clone Wars. I was maybe seven at the time, if I remember correctly, and being the child I was, I thought she had a kind smile. I never actually got to thank her, she had to carry on with the battle and I was still in a shock.”

     Luke smiled at him. “She’s going to come here to help me build my lightsaber so here’s your chance to thank her.”

     “ _I know her too_ ,” Chewie told them. “ _We were captured during the Clone Wars by some slavers and we helped each other escape. She was really nice and a good warrior._ ”

     Lando had honestly never thought any Jedi had survived the purge. Even the fact that Luke existed was nothing short of a miracle, and now Ahsoka Tano? It was incredible, and hearing that she had had such an impact on all of them already was even more so.

     “So, do we have a plan how to carry on?” Lando asked, returning to the reason why they actually were on Tatooine. “We still have to figure out how to infiltrate Jabba’s palace.”

     “Have you asked any of the moisture farmers?” Luke tilted his head. “I know my Uncle Owen used to deliver things to Jabba every now and then, and the same was true for other farmers. Apparently nothing grows near the palace.”

     Lando stared at Luke for a moment. “No, we… we never thought of that, right, Chewie?”

     “ _No, but that’s a good point_ ,” Chewie said. “ _You ought to do the talking, Lando, I’m gonna stick out like a Mon Calamari on Jakku._ ”

     “Also, not that many people even understand Shyriiwook,” Luke added.

     “ _That too_ ,” Chewie laughed. “ _Right, are we gonna stick around in this hangar or do we have another place to go to?_ ”

     “I was thinking about the old Kenobi homestead,” Luke said. “It’s abandoned and I heard a rumor that people think it’s haunted, so that should keep Sand People away.”

     Old Kenobi homestead it was then, and like Luke had said, it was abandoned. No one had lived there since Ben Kenobi had left Tatooine with Luke, Han, and Chewie four years earlier, Luke had explained. It was remote, near to a place called the Beggar’s Canyon and actually hard to find if you didn’t know it was there. The _Falcon_ and Luke’s X-wing disappeared there very nicely.

     Lando thought it was perfect, and definitely good change from the _Falcon_. Though he still adored the ship, it simply had too many ghosts for his liking. A house without those ghosts sounded like a dream, even though the place needed some cleaning. There was sand everywhere. It was hardly a surprise, given that Tatooine was a desert planet, but Lando hadn’t expected to find sand dunes inside the house.

     They spent the rest of the evening shoveling most of the sand out. By the time the twin suns were setting there was still sand inside, but most of the furniture was uncovered and they might even be able to sleep there. Chewie, however, said he’d bunk in the _Falcon_.

     “ _Too much sand_ ,” he said. “ _I’d never get all of that off my fur._ _And I don’t think we’ll all fit in there anyway. That place isn’t built for Wookiees._ ”

     Lando and Luke brought their belongings inside and started to settle down for the night. There was only one bunk bed in the bedroom, well, obviously, since Ben Kenobi had lived alone. Lando carried the mattress from the bunk bed he had been using, settling it on the other side of the room. It wasn’t the most ideal arrangement since there really wasn’t a lot of space, but chances were that Luke didn’t snore, which automatically made him a better bunkmate than Chewie. Luke laughed when Lando said this out loud, and the sound of it made Lando’s heart skip a beat.

     That first night Lando couldn’t calm down enough to sleep. The makeshift bed was comfortable enough, and the nights on Tatooine were the coolest time of the day, so by all accounts he should’ve been asleep a long time ago. But the sleep didn’t come. They were closer to saving Han than ever before, but there were still so many things that could go wrong.

     Lando shook his head and got up. Maybe sitting outside in fresh air for a moment helped him clear his head. He walked to the door and peeked outside, in case of Sand People. For his surprise, Luke was outside too, sitting on a large bench-like rock by the doorway, his quilt wrapped tightly around him.

     “Why are you out here this late?” Lando asked.

     Luke looked up at Lando and shrugged. “Trouble sleeping. Ghost itching in my hand. Why are you out here?”

     “Couldn’t sleep either.”

     Luke smiled and pulled the quilt tighter around himself, looking up to the night sky. Tatooine had three moons, but evidently it was new moon for two of them, and the stars were bright that night.

     “You know, when I was younger, I used to sneak out during the night to watch the stars,” Luke said with a hushed tone. Lando sat next to him and leaned against the wall. “I didn’t do it often, what with the Sand People lurking around, so Uncle Owen didn’t like it when I did it, but sometimes…”

     Luke rubbed his eyes and yawned before he continued, “Feels like it was someone else’s life now, or something out of a dream. I never thought I’d leave this place, even though all my life I dreamed about being somewhere else.”

     “Life is funny like that,” Lando admitted, his eyes never leaving Luke’s face. Luke didn’t seem to notice this, his eyes were still glued on the stars. The moonlight was enough to give him a near ethereal look. In his time Lando had seen many things that had taken his breath away, but nothing quite as spectacular as Luke Skywalker under the pale moonlight of Tatooine.

     Maybe there was something beautiful on this planet after all.

     Luke turned to look at Lando, who in turn pretended he hadn’t just been staring.

     “I’m sorry, Lando,” Luke said. “You lost your city because of me. If I hadn’t been so reckless and done exactly what Vader wanted, maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess right now.”

     “It wasn’t your fault,” Lando answered, gently patting Luke’s shoulder. “We both tried to do the right thing for the people we cared about, and it just turned out it wasn’t enough for the best outcome. I’m not gonna blame you for wanting to keep your friends safe. I think in your shoes I would’ve done the same.”

     “Still, it wasn’t fair for you to lose your entire city for some guy you didn’t even know.”

     Lando sighed. “Luke, I’ll say it one more time. Not your fault. Wanna blame someone? Blame Vader. None of this would’ve happened if he hadn’t showed up. But I also have to say that if anything good came out of this mess, then it’s that I got to meet you.”

     Luke blushed, and in the moonlight the sight was stunning. “Well… I could actually say the same. I wish it had been under more pleasant circumstances, but I’m happy I got to get to know you.”

 

* * *

 

In nearly three months there was no sign of Ahsoka Tano until one day a transmission finally came through from Mon Mothma. Apparently Ahsoka had to go on a surprise mission with Commander Rex, but that she was going to join them on Tatooine in a few days’ time. So, there was nothing to be done really but wait. The following day it turned out they had run out of some essentials, such as food and some other supplies.

     “Looks like we’re in for a shopping trip,” Lando sighed. “Are we closer to Mos Eisley or Mos Espa?”

     “Mos Eisley,” Luke answered, making a face. “I’d really rather go to Mos Espa, since there’s less Imperial presence there, but I don’t think we’d survive that trip only on my landspeeder.”

     It was true, the twin suns of Tatooine were merciless. For that reason alone Chewie decided to stay at the homestead, tending the _Falcon_ and the X-wing. They also figured that Mos Eisley wasn’t especially the safest place for a Wookiee, considering that Luke had called it “the most wretched hive of scum and villainy”. So, it was safer for Chewie to stay put until they were ready to execute their rescue plan. Besides, there apparently was a bounty on him as well, so all the more reason for Chewie to stay in the homestead.

     The trip to Mos Eisley took almost two standard hours. It was lucky the landspeeder Luke had purchased had a hood, otherwise the trip would’ve been unbearable. At the spaceport they left the speeder to one of the hangars that had a lockable door. It was rather expensive, at least on Tatooine’s scale, but that way they could be sure no one would steal the speeder while they were running errands. Besides, Leia had given them a rather generous amount of credits for the mission, they could afford to spend some for this.

     Haggling became a lot easier when it turned out that Luke was fluent in Huttese. Lando had learned a bit too, having smuggled for Gardulla the Hutt a couple of times, but his Huttese was rusty at best. In the end they managed to buy food for a few days. After they had found a hidden well near the Kenobi homestead that was still working they hadn’t needed to buy any, which was a relief, because it was one of the most over-priced items on Tatooine – even though everyone needed it to survive. Lando had on several occasions imagined how different things would’ve been if he had been given the opportunity to run this backwater place.

     Everything had run so smoothly that Lando started to let his guard down a bit. No sign of any Imperials, or Jabba’s minions, or any other unsavory characters. And of course that was when trouble came their way. On their way from an alley to the hangar they had left their speeder in, Luke placed his hand on Lando’s chest all of the sudden, effectively stopping him. “Stormtroopers!” he hissed.

     Shit. They needed a diversion, and quick. Some instinct from Lando’s smuggling days kicked in and he pulled Luke into his arms, kissing him full on the mouth. Luke froze for only a moment before he caught up with the scheme and kissed Lando back, placing his hands on his cheeks – surely Lando only imagined Luke’s enthusiasm. This was just a diversion, nothing more. But Luke did have very soft lips for someone who had spent most of his life on this arid hellhole of a planet. And it sure had been a long time since the last time Lando had kissed anyone.

     The stormtroopers walked past them without paying any further attention. Thank the stars, this old trick still worked like a charm, but in a way Lando felt a twitch of disappointment in his gut. Now there was no more excuse to keep kissing Luke. Wait no, that was a ridiculous thing to even think of. Luke was his friend, that was all there was to it.

     “Sorry about that,” Lando said after they broke apart again (too soon, _too damn soon_ ). “Public displays of affection tend to make other people uncomfortable, so…”

     Luke shrugged with a small smile playing on his lips. “Well, it worked. Come on, let’s get back to the speeder. We have everything we need for a few days and I think Chewie’s getting hungry. Besides, Ahsoka could get to the homestead any moment and I’d like to be there to receive her.”

     They picked up their speeder and headed back home in silence. Lando pretended to watch the scenery while his treacherous mind was screaming _You kissed Luke Skywalker you kissed him you kissed him you kissed him_ over and over again. Out of all the things he could’ve done to distract the stormtroopers, he had to go for kissing Luke. Well done, Calrissian.

     This was most likely going to be a huge problem later. They were on a mission, not on a honeymoon or anything. Yeah, because that’s the right comparison, Lando scolded himself. He sneaked a glance at Luke. The Jedi’s expression was unreadable, as expected. Well, it didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was rescuing Han.

     Right?

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are appreciated ♥


End file.
